Your series with "Drew Finn" on felling trees is misguided and dangerous. I seriously advise you to re-do it with a professional arborist, forester, or logger. Additionally, someone with teaching experience should help with the script. I speak as a professional arborist and former educator.
If the preceding doesn't convince, just imagine the liability your company faces when some homeowner squishes himself and a bunch of qualified people (read the comments) have cast warnings about the matter.
Good post, Bendtree. I left a couple of comments on the series, as well. Though I am not an engineer, I AM a tree guy who is always trying to do the right thing, especially when it comes to safety. Any professional tree worker (arborist, logger, etc.) should know better than to do tree work without proper PPE (including a HELMET, for gosh sake). A few other complaints about the video series: Never stand directly behind a tree you are falling due to barber-chairing potential, and get in the habit of engaging the chain brake before you start the saw and every time you stop cutting (so don't walk around the job site without the brake engaged, and don't put your hand near the chain & bar without the chain brake engaged).
The so-called expert on the series is guilty of malpractice, in my opinion, and setting himself up for some serious litigation; perhaps the site on which he posted the video series could be liable as well (any attorney-arborists in here?). I've read Victor Merullo's book on Arboriculture & the Law, but don't remember a specific reference to an incident such as this.
But of more concern to me than lawsuits is the fact that Joe Homeowner could be maimed or killed from following the advice of this "expert." It is ironic that the title of the series is something along the lines of "How to Fell a Tree SAFELY" (emphasis mine). I'm not sure what criteria the site uses to determine a person's level of expertise; does anyone in here know? The threshold, apparently, is rather low for being considered an "expert."
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